Bamboo Paper

Our friends at the Favini paper mill in Italy pioneered the use of alternative fibres. In the 1990's Maggie Philbin on BBC Tomorrow's World (...do you remember that?) introduced the original Favini ecological paper Alga Carta and the mill has continued development of other eco-products over the last thirty years.

Tree Free has been setting the standards for papermaking with zero impact on forestry for more than twenty years. Now with an improved recipe and a refreshed range that includes a new 380 gsm weight ideal for tags, cards and packaging, Tree Free uses 75% Bamboo Fibres with 25% cotton linters. Both are renewable annual crops which yield high quality fibres giving a natural tactile finish to the paper and excellent printability. 

To complete the story of sustainability, Tree Free is recyclable, biodegradable and made using EKOenergy from a hydro electric power station. Tree Free carries the FSC™ certification, even though like the name implies it has no impact on forests.

It is available in two shades, Bamboo Natural and Bamboo Cream. If you would like one of these lovely swatches, please email me: justin@fennerpaper.co.uk

https://www.favini.com/gs/en/

Posted by Justin Hobson 25.03.2024

The World Cup for type lovers...

Here's a World Cup wallchart for the typographic purist!

This A1 size wallchart is very simply produced in just two colour litho and is printed on our wonderful Shiro Alga Carta 90gsm from Italian paper manufacturer Favini. Shiro Alga Carta began life as a way to utilise the damaging algal blooms which were clogging up Venice lagoon. Now the lagoon in Venice has been cleared of this problem, the concept has now been extended to help the clean up process in other fragile marine areas.

Design is by David Coates, who also happens to be a member of the ISTD board (International Society of Typographic Designers). Printing is by Typecast Colour in Paddock Wood.

 

We will be sending out some of these wallcharts in the post, but if you want to make absolutely sure you get a copy for next week, you can email me Justin@fennerpaper.co.uk

 

http://www.typecast.co.uk/

https://www.istd.org.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 05.06.2018

New SHIRO swatch

Most readers will know of our lovely range of ecological papers from Favini called SHIRO. Favini is a paper manufacturer based in Italy with mills in Vicenza near the city of Venice and at Crusinallo. They have taken a lead in the utlisation of non wood pulps since the early 1990’s and they are the manufacturers of the SHIRO range.

Favini - Crusinallo Paper Mill

The complex issues of ecology and the environment have assumed an overwhelming importance for Favini over the last few years influencing manufacturing, quality and product development policies.

The mill is pictured above and the paper machine is pictured below.

One of the paper machines at Favini

Favini is the mill that has also developed Crush which you'll have read about on this blog previously. We now have some spanky new Shiro swatches (pictured below) - SHIRO is a range of environmentally friendly papers that is produced using carbon neutral electrical energy. It’s a total eco solution containing three different ranges each unique within their own environmental values.   

The range is ideal for businesses with strong environmental policies and combines the very best paper-making innovation using renewable non-tree biomass, recycled waste and carbon neutral electrical energy. There are three papers in the SHIRO range:
Alga Carta – Tree Free – Echo Recycled

SHIRO - Alga Carta

Alga Carta is a paper manufactured using polluting alga harvested from the Venice lagoon, combined with FSC certified fibres. Algae blooms at the end of Summer in the Venice lagoon as the warm water combines with pollution. The algae must be harvested to maintain the lagoon's eco-balance (circa 5,000 tonnes of wet algae is removed annually). The algae (seaweed) is used partly as pulp replacement but mainly as a filler and this accounts for its unusual smooth feel and the random specks.

SHIRO - Tree Free

Tree Free is a naturally different paper that uses fibres from annual plants such as bamboo, cotton or bagasse – it is made with 100% non-tree fibres – it is a naturally different paper – no trees!

SHIRO – Echo ...100% Recycled

Echo is the highest quality bright white and natural recycled paper. It’s made from 100% Post Consumer Waste (PCW) and carries FSC accreditation. There are two shades, a bright White and a Natural and the weight range is from 80gsm up to 300gsm. I have recently posted a beautiful job for Primark and the Guardian News & Media Sustainability Reports on this blog.

 

If you would like one of the current swatches, please drop me an e-mail: justin@fennerpaper.co.uk

http://www.favini.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 11.05.2016

Packaging Innovations 2015

Today I visited the Packaging Innovations exhibition at Olympia. The exhibition also incorporates the Luxury Packaging show and many of the country's leading packaging suppliers are present, together with many suppliers from around the globe.

The show launched in 2010 and Luxury Packaging was introduced in 2013. With over 150 exhibitors at the two-day event it is on today and tomorrow.

http://www.cordenons.co.uk/

There are several paper mills represented at the show, including Cordenons (above) who were showing their new Papermilk range, which is manufactured using a proportion of milk fibres, which produces a luxurious feeling paper.

Last year, the show attracted 4,000 visitors with numbers expected to be far higher this year.

http://www.favini.co.uk/

Favini from Italy (above) were exhibiting a wide range of their products from their Astralux cast coated range to Shiro range of Ecological papers.

If you fancy going, you'll have to be quick! You can register for free on the following link:
http://www.easyfairs.com/events_216/packaging-innovations-london-2015_65089/packaging-innovations-london-2015_65090/

Posted by Justin Hobson 16.09.2015

Landor: Little book of tweets

 Landor produced their liitle book of tweets containing some of their favourite highlights from 2012. 

Size is 120mm square and it's 24pp self cover, saddle stitched. Printed on our Shiro Echo, Bright White 120gsm throughout. This is an "Indigo ready" sheet for digital printing, manufactured by Favini so this was printed digitally on an HP Indigo press and as you can see, it looks excellent.



Needless to say, design is by Landor. Printing, on their HP Indigo press, is by West London based BOSS

 

www.landor.com

www.bossprint.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 21.03.2013

Shiro mailer drops on the doorstep...

If you're one of the lucky people in my address book, you should receive a natty little mailer, as pictured, from paper manufacturer Favini about their range which we are now stocking in the UK, called SHIRO.

It's a lovely little piece held together by a "rivet" and is to highlight the three distinct sub-ranges within the Shiro collection. They arrive in a custom made envelope (made from Shiro, of course) 238x65mm which is important as they fall in the cheaper "Letter" category for UK postal costs! They were designed in house by the creative team at Favini and produced in Italy.

This is a new range of really beautiful papers - they are lovely to the touch, have a great formation and will print really well - hopefully over the coming months you'll see some lovely jobs on this paper featured on this very blog!

If you would like one of the new swatches (pic below), please e-mail me: justin@fennerpaper.co.uk

Here's a bit about the three papers in the SHIRO range: 

SHIRO - Alga Carta

Alga Carta is a paper manufactured using polluting alga harvested from the Venice lagoon, combined with FSC certified fibres. Algae blooms at the end of Summer in the Venice lagoon as the warm water combines with pollution. The algae must be harvested to maintain the lagoon's eco-balance (circa 5,000 tonnes of wet algae is removed annually). The algae (seaweed) is used partly as pulp replacement but mainly as a filler and this accounts for its unusual smooth feel and the random specks.

SHIRO – Echo

Echo is the highest quality bright white and natural recycled paper. It’s made from 50% Post Consumer Waste (PCW) combined with 50% FSC virgin fibres. There are two shades, a bright White and a Natural and the weight range is from 90gsm up to 300gsm

SHIRO - Tree Free

Tree Free is a naturally different paper that uses fibres from annual plants such as bamboo, cotton or bagasse – it is made with 100% non-tree fibres – it is a naturally different paper – no trees!

Anyway that's the end of my sales pitch! - If you would like a swatch (or a mailer if you didn't receive one!) drop me an e-mail: justin@fennerpaper.co.uk

http://www.favini.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 08.09.2010

The Bury St Edmunds Eco-Fair

Fenner Paper took the new SHIRO range from FAVINI to the Eco- Fair held at Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk last weekend. We were invited to be involved by Green Party Councillor Mark Ereira-Guyer and organiser Paul Turner who is Fire Brigade Union Environmental representative who hosted the fair. Suffolk is aiming at creating the Greenest County (http://www.greensuffolk.org)/

Rather than just having a stand at a show with samples and swatches, my colleague Marcus, wanted to add another dimension! ...so he decided to get the ingredients from the mill and using a hand-made paper frame made his very own version of "TREE FREE" paper! 

Sheets of Cotton, bagasse and Bamboo pulp were sent from FAVINI in Italy and after a few trial goes in the company kitchinette, Marcus eventually became an expert at making handmade paper. So he packed up his papermaking kit, bucket, whisk and sheets of pulp and set off for deepest Suffolk. Below is pictured the "stock chest"

...and below is the finished "Tree Free" paper drying on tea towels.

Although this was all jolly good fun, there are a couple of serious points: paper can be made from anything fibrous and it takes a huge amount of water to make paper in the first place (see size of bucket) although it should be pointed out that at a paper mill, after cleaning, it is returned to the environment. 

SHIRO
Alga Carta - made using seaweed and FSC virgin fibres
Tree Free - made from annual plants such as bamboo, cotton or bagasse (100% non-tree fibres)

Echo - made from 50% Post Consumer Waste (PCW) combined with 50% FSC virgin fibres.

(http://www.greensuffolk.org)/

http://www.favini.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 22.07.2010

NEW PRODUCT LAUNCH

As most regular readers will know, I don't run this blog to 'flog' our papers and I rarely shamelessly plug our products ...but I'm going to now!  This is a launch of a new product range which we have put into stock called SHIRO. We are now the UK distributor of this new range from Italian manufacturer FAVINI. We have some spanky new swatches (below) and a mailer will be going out soon.

Favini is a paper mill based in Italy in Vicenza near the city of Venice. They have taken a lead in the utlisation of non wood pulps since the early 1990’s and they are the manufacturers of the SHIRO range. The complex issues of ecology and the environment have assumed an overwhelming importance for Favini over the last few years influencing manufacturing, quality and product development policies. The mill is pictured above and the paper machine is pictured below.

SHIRO is a range of environmentally friendly papers that is produced using carbon neutral electrical energy. It’s a total eco solution containing three different ranges each unique within their own environmental values.

The range is ideal for businesses with strong environmental policies and combines the very best paper-making innovation using renewable non-tree biomass, recycled waste and carbon neutral electrical energy. There are three papers in the SHIRO range: Alga Carta – Tree Free – Echo Recycled

SHIRO - Alga Carta

Alga Carta is a paper manufactured using polluting alga harvested from the Venice lagoon, combined with FSC certified fibres. Algae blooms at the end of Summer in the Venice lagoon as the warm water combines with pollution. The algae must be harvested to maintain the lagoon's eco-balance (circa 5,000 tonnes of wet algae is removed annually). The algae (seaweed) is used partly as pulp replacement but mainly as a filler and this accounts for its unusual smooth feel and the random specks.

SHIRO - Tree Free

Tree Free is a naturally different paper that uses fibres from annual plants such as bamboo, cotton or bagasse – it is made with 100% non-tree fibres – it is a naturally different paper – no trees!

SHIRO – Echo
Echo is the highest quality bright white and natural recycled paper. It’s made from 50% Post Consumer Waste (PCW) combined with 50% FSC virgin fibres. There are two shades, a bright White and a Natural and the weight range is from 90gsm up to 300gsm

Anyway that's the end of the commercial break!  - If you would like a swatch, drop me an e-mail: justin@fennerpaper.co.uk and as I mentioned earlier, there will be a mailing going out very soon...

http://www.favini.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 12.07.2010